Jane Addam’s memoir, Twenty Years at Hull House opens up a vivid account of life
during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Addams begins this piece with her upbringing as a child but she doesn’t stop with her life though, in fact, her upbringing is what leads her to branch out and grow a diverse set of relationships with other people and discourse communities in the Chicagoland area.

In this novel, we see the different classes, political factions and immigration perspectives that were prevalent during the time of Hull House. Offering such a wide telling of tales and interpersonal relationships can help illustrate the development of Illinoisan society and culture; this memoir is so rich with information, there are so many cultural, economic and social queues that a historian could use to bring this subject to life with ease. Jane Addams even makes it clear of these virtues when she writes that “The settlement, then, is an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems which are engendered by the modern conditions of life in a great city” (95).

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A quick Summary of “Hull House” by Jane Addams

“Hull House” by Jane Addams was a groundbreaking social experiment that aimed to address the pressing social issues that plagued the urban poor in Chicago during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Addams established Hull House as a settlement house, a place where immigrants and working-class individuals could find refuge, education, and support. Through various programs and services, Addams and her team sought to uplift the community, offering childcare, healthcare, vocational training, and cultural enrichment. Hull House became a symbol of hope, fostering a sense of community and social justice, while also advocating for political and social reforms. Addams’ work at Hull House not only left a lasting impact on Chicago but also inspired a generation of activists and reformers.

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Jane Addams appeals to different classes of people. She has littered this memoir with so
much information, both direct and indirectly about social standards at the time. Hull House mainly dealt with the under privileged or low class residents, but she makes it clear that “men and women of education and refinement come to live in a cheaper neighborhood because they lack the ability to make money, because of ill health, because of an unfortunate marriage, or for other reasons which do not imply criminality or stupidity” (84).

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In other words, it doesn’t matter where we come from, we are all subject to period of decline or hardships in our lives. This book does an excellent job of illustrating this period of decline and how working together can propel a people to the forefront of political scenarios. Before Jane Addams begins to describe the experiences on Halsted Street, she speaks about her education and personal life. These personal
experiences show us what the education of a privileged woman was at the time. She talks about reading the classics and learning to speak Latin (48).

She adds credibility to her story when she tells the readers in the beginning that even as a child, she could recall ‘horrid nights’ because she “had told a lie” (43). Much of her introduction to the memoir discusses the influence which her father had on her life. She relays that her father was a man of the people, he was a philanthropist. This philanthropist spirit is then repeated again with the influence of Lincoln.

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The Importance of Education, According to Jane Addams in Hull House

Another big idea or movement which can be placed under the topic of social standards can be read in the chapter on Tolstoyism. The title itself is indicative of how an educated person (Jane Addams) thinks about social reformation and how their government works. This is also interesting because we now have a foreigner come into the picture with his ideals, yet they are similar to those of Lincoln, at least according to Addams.

The connection comes in how each speaker, Tolstoy and Lincoln, both talk about how important the people are, regardless of class or culture. A government, or a small community has to involved in order for it to succeed. The minds of the educated at this time were reading Tolstoy after having grown up during the civil war, this argument helps illuminate how important social expectations were and how they were perceived (150).

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Culturally, a historian can follow up on much media or influence of public subjects to be able to arrange the information through a lens regarding the different ideologies. Including a chapter on how President Lincoln influenced not only her life, but the lives of many children is a good account of what Illinoisans thought about the President that had come from their very own state. Her father would speak of the “the great name [Lincoln] with thrill” (53).

Jane Addams was modest; when asked about her plans to make Hull House the greatest institution on the West Side, she replied that she had “no ambition to make Hull House the largest institution, but that[they] were much more concerned that [their] neighbors should be protected from untoward conditions of work” (54). This modesty was inspired by Lincoln and his contemporaries in an attempt to practice the great art of being self-governed.

The Idea of Being Self Governed

This idea of being self governed which was inspired by President Lincoln is what made Jane Addams realize that “if this tremendous experiment was to come to fruition, it must be brought about by the people themselves; that there was no other capital fund upon which to draw” (54). Clearly, the people of Illinois had a strong conviction towards the work of Lincoln and the community.

Another cultural study and also away in which Hull House helped educate the community was by offering reading parties. These gatherings illustrate how the poor community was educated in literature. These courses then grew into other discourse fields such as math, speech, speaking English, cooking and even how to complete the common house chores.

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Most of these were educational in the academic sense but the interesting one to note is the class on house chores. Addams tells us how there were so many immigrants that were used to working long days, so they never learned how to properly take care of their homes, clothes and cooking.

A historian can take this information to paint a picture of how these immigrants were so committed to supporting their family financially, they were hard working individuals. They worked so hard for other companies that they didn’t even have time to learn how to take care of their selves. This has a lot to do with identity. One would think that these immigrants would pass on the traditions of cooking or home making, but life in the new world made it hard.

This working class had to be realigned with pretty much the basics of taking care of themselves. And even the educated fell into this realm of having to re identify themselves: a woman “of English birth, was well bred and carefully educated, but was in the midst of that bitter struggle which awaits so many strangers in American cities who find that their social position tends to be measured solely by the standards of living they are able to maintain” (82).

Adam’s posits the notion that “a man’s action is found in his social relationships in the way in which he connect with his fellows; that his motives for action are the zeal and affection with which he regards his fellows” (94). The last event regarding the cultural analysis comes in chapter 11: Immigrants and their children.

Generational Differences in Hull House

Addams points out the differences between the generations. The first generation of immigrants still dresses like they did back where they came from and they do it with pride. This first generation also reminisces much a bout walking “plowed fields” and having breathed “country air”, while the second generation doesn’t feel like they should dress in their old culture.

Neither do they talk about walking the old country, rather, the boys laugh at their drunk fathers, but that when these boys would later drinking their lives, they would have “no pastoral interlude” (136). Not only do we learn about the ideological transition between the two generations, we also can infer that both generations like to drink, according to Addams. Jane Addams also gives its reader many views on the economic situation during the era of Hull House.

One view can be read when she offers us a description of the rural life which I think can also be used as a metaphor for how the upper class treated the underprivileged foreigners: “a number of starved hogs – collateral for a promissory note – were huddled into an open pen. Their backs were humped in a curious, camel-like fashion, and they were devouring one of their own number, the latest victim of absolute starvation or possibly merely the one least able to defend himself against their voracious hunger” (75).

This passage invokes a parallel of the community; the privileged continue to pick on the helpless in an already poor society. These upper classmen tried to keep the foreigners under paid and in unhealthy conditions but Hull House stood against them. Another example of the economic outlook comes to light when Addams sheds light on the working conditions of children. In chapter 10, Addams relays a story in which three boys were injured at work due to a “lack of guard which would have cost but a few dollars” on a machine (122). She then finds out that there are also many children working in the sweat shops with their mothers.

These children were also helping their parents at work because they spoke English better than their parents, in essence, they needed to go to work or else their parents would lose their jobs. But the only child labor law at the time was restricted to children working at the mines. This is when Addams and Mrs. Kelly suggest to the Illinois State Bureau of Labor that they investigate the “sweating system in Chicago” ( 123). Jane Adam’s memoir spans throughout twenty years as the title indicates, but it also spans many social perspectives.

In Review of Hull House by Jane Addams

A historian can read about economic differences based on class or political standings, and they can also make explicit the underpinnings of how they perceived social standards based on Tolstoy or Lincoln. The thickest thread of relevance here lay in the authors experiences about culture. The cultural references can be found throughout each chapter.

There really are so many layers in this short memoir, since it spans so many years and is rooted in the liberal arts tradition that any historian should not have any problems with finding information here to illustrate the community at the time. They might actually have a problem with having to limit the amount of information, but definitely not finding something to talk about.

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